Skip to main content

The State Library provides home access to eResources including authoritative databases that include journals, magazines, current and historical newspapers on a wide range of subjects including history, science, business, medical and technology. Home access means that registered library users can access these eResources from home. We also have a range of eBooks covering subjects in social sciences, humanities and information technologies.

All South Australian residents are eligible to join the State Library and receive a library card to gain home access to eResources. For non-South Australian residents try searching on Trove.

Join the State Library online or when you visit us, remember to bring along some identification. You can choose to collect your card from the State Library or have it posted to you which can take up to 10 days.

Multi-subject eResources

eLibrary
eLibrary is an extensive eResource featuring newspapers, magazines, reference and multimedia sources including over 150 Australian and New Zealand newspaper titles. It contains The Advertiser and Sunday Mail from 1 January 2001, (from January 2014 Sunday Mail is combined with the Advertiser), The Australian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and many more. New Zealand titles include The Dominion Post. Also featured are Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) transcripts and Australian Associated Press (AAP) newswires. The "Guided Research Interface" is tailored to the student researcher.

Gale Research complete 
Gale Research complete is a suite of resources covering science, technology, social science and humanities subjects, news, eBooks, literature, and primary sources available in full text.

Informit
Informit is a multi-subject database with full text and indexes that provide authoritative research from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region. It has an extensive range of journals, conference papers, books and newspapers with a focus on political, economic and social affairs, although indexes on other topics such as indigenous affairs, science, technology, health and education are available.

Ebooks

eBook Central (ProQuest)
eBook Central provides access to a collection of eBooks on a wide range of subjects and which can be read online or downloaded for 1-to-7-day loan period.

History

Early experiences in Australasia: Primary sources and personal narratives 1788-1901
Provides a unique and personal view of events in the region from the arrival of the first settlers through to Australian Federation. It contains first-person accounts, including letters and diaries, narratives, and other primary source materials from the collections of libraries across the region with the State Library of South Australia providing a large number of items from its collections for this eResource. Supporting material such as images, maps, and photographs supplement the first-person narratives and provide additional context.

Newspapers: Australian

The Age Library Edition 2006 to present
This eResource provides an identical replica of The Age printed edition. It contains every page, article, photo, table, advertisement and cartoon published in the printed edition. It also includes the Sunday Age as well as Monday to Saturday and covers the period from 2006 to the present. 2006 content is limited to only the News, Business and Sports sections. To access the Age newspaper go to the box Existing subscribers Click here for direct access in the top right part of the homepage.

eLibrary
eLibrary is an extensive eResource featuring newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, transcripts, web resources, reference and multimedia sources including over 150 Australian and New Zealand newspaper titles. It contains The Advertiser and Sunday Mail from 1 January 2001, (from January 2014 Sunday Mail is combined with the Advertiser), The Australian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and many more. New Zealand titles include The Dominion Post. Also featured are Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) transcripts and Australian Associated Press (AAP) newswires. The "Guided Research Interface" is tailored to the student researcher.

NewsBank
Access Australia from NewsBank is a unique, web-based resource that provides a comprehensive full-text news coverage from across Australia. From local newspapers to major national titles such as The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Access Australia includes content from over 500 of the most popular Australian daily, weekly and Sunday newspapers as well as hard-to-find community, regional and rural titles. South Australian titles include the Advertiser, Sunday Mail and Messenger from 1998 to the present.

Newspapers: Historical Australian and British

Nineteenth-Century British Newspapers
This collection consists of a comprehensive range of national, regional and local British newspapers from the late 18th century to the mid 20th century. It contains millions of digitised pages reporting major and local events, as well as personal notices. These newspapers provide students, social historians and genealogists with a rich source of primary research material and contextual information about British society.

Times Digital Archives
Full-image online archive of every page published by The Times (London) between 1785-2013. The Times has covered all major international events from the French Revolution to the War in Afghanistan. It is a valuable resource for 19th-, 20th-, and early 21st-century history, literature, culture, business, art and architecture. Search full-text or browse by date.

Trove Newspapers
Trove provides free access to 18.5 million pages from Australian newspapers. Over 1,000 titles are available covering every state and territory from 1803 to 1954. South Australian titles include The South Australian Register from 1839 to February 1901, The South Australian Advertiser from 1858 to 1889, The Advertiser 1889 to 1954 and many more.

Newspapers: International

PressDisplay / PressReader
Provides online access to the full content of 7,000 current newspapers and magazines from approximately 120 countries in 60 plus languages and displays an exact replica of the printed edition. Issues for the last 3-12 months are available for each title with the ability to perform keyword searches across all titles. A translate function for 18 languages is available and can be used directly in an article. While this database has Australian regional newspapers and a range of magazine titles it does not contain the Fairfax and News Corporation newspapers like the Age or The Advertiser. The Age Library Edition and Sydney Morning Herald Library Edition eResources have current issues of both newspapers.

Reference

Britannica Library
Britannica provides access to three sites in one (Complete Encyclopedia, the Student Encyclopedia and the Junior Encyclopedia), with age-appropriate material from the child-friendly collection through to the adult general reference collection.

Science

Gale in context: Science
Gale in context: Science, provides contextual information on hundreds of today's most significant science topics. This database merges Gale's authoritative and continuously updated reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, experiments, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organised into a user-friendly portal experience.

Natural Science Collection
The Natural Science Collection includes the Agri and Env, BioScience, and Earth, Atmospheric and Aqua Databases and provides full-text titles from around the world including scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications and more.

Tutorials: searching and using eResource databases

Below are tutorials to assist with searching and operating specific databases more effectively:

Other useful sites to search

Trove
Trove is an online discovery service that assists in finding and using resources relating to Australia. It provides access to digitised newspapers, photos, pictures, maps and government gazettes. It also locates where books, magazines, music, sound and video recordings and archival material are held.

Google Advanced Search
Google Advanced Search provides a menu based mechanism to conduct more powerful and effective searches. The menu includes Boolean searches as well as filters to narrow searches by country when a site was last updated, a sector domain or a specific site, where the term appears, and file type.

Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many subjects and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other websites.

Europeana
Europeana is a portal that acts as an interface to millions of books, paintings, films, museum objects and archival records that have been digitised throughout Europe and contributed by over 2,000 institutions across Europe.

World Digital Library
The World Digital Library provides significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials

National Archives of Australia
The National Archives of Australia’s collection covers public records pertaining to Federation, Governors Generals, Prime Ministers, Cabinet and Ministers and most of the activities with which the government has been involved.

Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial is Australia’s national memorial to the members of its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in wars involving the Commonwealth of Australia. Available records include World War I military personnel, including films, photographs, private archives, art, published works, official records and audio collections.

Internet Archive
A non-profit library providing access to collections of digitised materials, including websites, software, music, movies and public domain books. The Wayback Machine allows archived web pages to be searched and accessed.